This helped A-Plant deliver an improved performance with its operating profits up by £1m to £5m on total turnover up 13% to £93m in the first half.
At the Ahstead group as a whole pre-tax profits have nearly trebled reaching £84m in the first half of the year on revenue up at £575m.
The upturn in profits was driven by its US hire business Sunbelt, which saw a 25% rise in rental revenues to $694m.
Ashtead’s chief executive, Geoff Drabble said: “The on-going structural shift to rental in the US and operational efficiency meant we delivered a very strong performance across a broad range of metrics despite end construction markets being at a cyclical low point.
“This is encouraging for both the short-term, where we expect a continuation of current trends, and the longer term where, when cyclical recovery comes, we expect to benefit significantly.
“With our robust debt structure, substantial capacity to fund fleet growth and the well-established momentum in the business we now anticipate a full year profit substantially ahead of our earlier expectations.”